1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to sand or soil bag structures and, in particular, to an interconnecting member for interconnecting sand or soil bags in a sand or soil bag structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 7,452,164 which issued on Nov. 18, 2008 to Kim and which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/842,620, which issued to U.S. Pat. No. 7,083,364 on Aug. 1, 2006 to Kim, discloses a retaining wall structure built of wall-building units such as sand or soil bags or hardenable building units such as clay bricks. The retaining wall structure has interconnecting members placed between adjacent courses of units to attach the adjacent courses to one another. The interconnecting members are plates having projections on both sides which protrude into the wall-building units of the adjacent courses. Sheets of geogrid preferably extend from between some of the courses of wall-building units into the fill retained by the wall-building units. Projections on the interconnecting members protrude through holes in the geogrid sheet, anchoring the wall side to the reinforced soil structure.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,371,772 which issued on Feb. 12, 2013 to Chang discloses a retaining wall structure which includes a number of bag units piled to form a wall and interconnecting units disposed between vertically adjacent bag units. The interconnecting units each has a plate and protrusions protruding from upper and lower sursides of the plate. A reinforcing layer is provided between the plate of a relative interconnecting unit and a relative bag unit. The reinforcing layer is selected from cement or adhesive (such as glue). The reinforcing layer between the plate of the interconnecting unit and the bag unit is used to enhance the entire stability of the retaining wall adapted for operation in different circumstances.
United States Patent Application Publication Number 2012/0027528 which published on Feb. 2, 2012 in the name of Alfreds discloses retaining wall systems and methods of making retaining wall systems. In one embodiment, the retaining wall system includes a first horizontally-extending course of sand or soil bags and a second horizontally-extending course of sand or soil bags positioned vertically adjacent to the first course of sand or soil bags. An interconnecting member attaches the first course of sand or soil bags to the second course of sand or soil bags. The interconnecting member has an upper side and a lower side. At least one of the upper side and the lower side has a first projection that includes a notch therein to engage geogrid.